7/21/2012 Fun with geiger! Antique store

Source: ichica4x (Christina Consolo aka RadChick)
Date: 7/21/2012

Video Description

This video was uploaded from an Android phone. Detroit-area antique store near Eastern Market, shot July 21, 2012. Uranium or "Vaseline Glass" is pretty common in antique stores. I'm guessing this is a higher uranium content than most, because I've checked glass like this before and never got such a reading!

Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium, usually in oxide diuranate form, added to a glass mix before melting. The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% by weight uranium, although some 19th-century pieces were made with up to 25% uranium.[1][2]

The normal colour of uranium glass ranges from yellow to green depending on the oxidation state and concentration of the metal ions, although this may be altered by the addition of other elements as glass colourants. Uranium glass also fluoresces bright green under ultraviolet light and can register above background radiation on a sufficiently sensitive Geiger counter, although most pieces of uranium glass are considered to be harmless and only negligibly radioactive...except this peice apparently, jeez.

Uranium glass was once made into tableware and household items, but fell out of widespread use when the availability of uranium to most industries was sharply curtailed during the Cold War in the 1940s to 1990s. Most such objects are now considered antiques or retro-era collectibles, although there has been a minor revival in art glassware. Otherwise, modern uranium glass is now mainly limited to small objects like beads or marbles as scientific or decorative novelties.

You can see many "Vaseline Glass" examples on Ebay. To spot it in a store look for the greenish-yellow color. Its usually labelled as such, and a bit pricey. I wouldnt recommend eating off of it :/

7/2/2012 Kim Jong-Il ordered uranium bombs: reports

Source: Japan Today
Date:  JUL. 02, 2012 - 02:53PM JST

Pyongyang has long maintained that it was enriching uranium solely for the purpose of power generation

TOKYO (AFP) —

The late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il ordered his scientists to produce “a massive amount” of uranium bombs, according to internal regime documents, reports in Japan said on Monday.
...
Read the rest here

5/27/2012 Laying the Foundations for Preemptive Nuclear War Against Iran

Source: Activist Post
Date: Sunday, May 27, 2012
by: Nile Bowie


As prospects for a preemptive strike on Iran remain ever present, the recent round of talks between the P5+1 and Iran in Baghdad on May 23rd, 2012 have resulted in a familiar stalemate. As a precondition for any deal to stop higher-grade uranium enrichment, Tehran requested immediate relief from economic sanctions as a show of reciprocity [1]. Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili emphasized Tehran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while the P5+1 refused to scale back economic sanctions, insisting Iran suspend its 20% uranium enrichment program [2].
...
Read the rest here

5/26/2012 IAEA finds high grade Uranium in Iran

Source: CNTV, PressTV, NHK World
Date: 5/26/2012


Reports from three news agencies for objectivity. The recent Reuters article I found from Drudge Report did seem to have a somewhat alarmist tone to it. The article is titled "Iran has enough uranium for 5 bombs: expert".

Plutonium to make nuclear bombs is extracted from reprocessing nuclear waste from commerical Uranium fission reactors

Source: RT: The Big Picture: Conversations with Great Minds
by: Thom Hartman


This interview with Stephanie Cooke, author of In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age and editor of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly is especially informative.  One reason for the push for commercial nuclear power is that Plutonium is the by-product of the nuclear fuel cycle.  Waste from Uranium fission reactors is reprocessed to chemically extract Plutonium, which is used to make nuclear bombs.

11/3/2011 Criticality Confusion at Fukushima Daiichi

After checking the RadiationNews™ Google gadget, I noticed ENENEWS (the tab one to the right of this feed) has highlighted that The Japan Times is calling for an investigation to determine the true seriousness of the condition now at the melted down Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  In The Japan Times article Find out true reactor conditions from 11/4/2011 JST it is reported that re-criticality (a sustained fission reaction) has occurred and that TEPCO has initially (on Tuesday 11/1/2011 JST) reported localized temporary criticality:

[...]

Because the half life of xenon-133 is 5.25 days and that of xeon-135 is 9.14 hours, criticality is very likely to have occurred just before the gases were analyzed.

Although more than seven months have passed since the start of the nuclear fiasco, clearly the reactor has not yet been stabilized. Tepco's plan to achieve "cold shutdown" of the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors by the end of this year may face difficulty.

The fact that Tepco cannot deny the possibility of criticality irrespective of its scale is a grave situation. The conditions are similar in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors. It is thought that nuclear fuel in them melted and has collected in the bottom of both the pressure and containment vessels.

[...]

After claiming that possible criticality was indicated by release of various isotopes of Xenon gas TEPCO has now backtracked to say it is only a spontaneous fission reaction of curium (a less serious condition).  So what is really true?  TEPCO has had a tendency to lie, downplay and delay releasing news concerning their crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant so it is likely that something more serious is going on than what they are attempting to present to the public.  For example, per the ENENEWS article Krypton-85 up over 14,000% in one day at Reactor No. 2 — Kr-85 used to detect “plutonium separations” the existence of Krypton-85 in Fukushima Daiichi reactor 2 is indicative of plutonium fission.

10/15/2011 How to protect oneself from radiation if evacuation is not possible

Source: drdrwoland YouTube channel
Date: 10/15/2011
by: Professor Christopher Busby

Chris Busby updates Japan on what to do to reduce the risk of radiation damage from the contamination from the Strontium-90, Uranium and Plutonium dispersed widely over northern Japan.First of all, evacuate the children and evacuate yourselves. The contamination of the ground and the food is a serious health hazard. Car air filter analysis shows the material on the ground becomes airborne and can be inhaled.

Get away If you can; but if not not then you can reduce the access of these radionuclides to the DNA. It is basic Physical Chemistry that increasing the Calcium concentration, (Calcium which stabilises the DNA phosphate backbone), will inhibit the equilibrium binding of radionuclides like Strontium, Uranium, Plutonium and other high DNAP affinity elements and complex ions. The Iodine thyroid blocking method is based on the same thermodynamic chemical equilibrium idea.

A number of websites have been selling pills based on his ideas and more are being set up but it is straightforward, he says, to buy Calcium/ Magnesium tablets from health food shops where they are not expensive. The adult dose is about 800mg Calcium and 350mg Magnesium. Reduce the dose for children in proportion to their relative weight, so for a 10-year old, about 400mg Calcium and 175mg Magnesium. This is a critical issue: it will save lives and it is so simple and is absolutely harmless.

http://www.llrc.org
http://www.greenaudit.org
http://www.bsrrw.org
http://www.euradcom.org

4/29/2011 True Stories by An Ex-TEPCO Nuclear Designer "TEPCO Is A Terrible Company"

Source: tokybrowntabby
Date: Video dated 4/29/2011 uploaded 10/6/2011

Please click on "cc" to show English subtitles. Mr. Toshio Kimura is a former nuclear designer at TEPCO. He used to work at Fukushima-1 Nuclear Power Plant. When the earthquake/tsunami hit, he was living 15km west of the plant, operating his own business of solar power generation, surfing on his free time. After the explosion of Unit 1 reactor, he and his family evacuated to Kochi Prefecture, where they live now.

Mr. Kimura has given talks at various anti-nuclear rallies around the country. This video is one of his talks at the rally held in Kochi Prefecture on April 29, 2011.

*********************************************************
The rest of his talk goes like this:
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As to the situation of the plant, 70% of the fuel in Unit 1 have melted. I haven't looked at the most recent data, but the reactor pressure is increasing, the radiation dose inside the containment vessel is increasing, and iodine-131 is not decreasing. It has started to decrease a bit recently, though. All this means is there definitely has been re-criticality until recently. Because, as you know, the half life of iodine-131 is only 8 days. And yet, after more than a month from the accident, we still see an increase in the level of iodine-131. That itself proves there has been re-criticality, because otherwise iodine shouldn't have been produced. A neutron hits the atom of uranium-235, the atom splits, and iodine-131 is produced. That's how the nuclear fission occurs. And through the mechanism that can be explained by Einstein's theory of relativity, heat is produced. The heat boils water to create steam, and the steam spins the turbin. The turbines are connected in series and drive the electrical generator to produce electricity. This is the mechanism of electricity generation.

Iodine-131 is not produced unless neutrons cause nuclear fission. That's why I'm saying there has been re-criticality. Nuclear Safety Commission won't admit it. TEPCO won't admit it. The government won't admit it. But really there has been re-criticality until very recently. This is the fact. Any professional with the knowledge of physics of nuclear reactor can tell. This re-criticality issue is one of the things they are hiding from you.

Another lie is that 0.24 microsievert/h is safe. This is wrong.

These are the things I wanted to tell you today. Here in Kochi, you don't have to worry too much because Kochi is quite far from Fukushima. But please look at the radiation dispersion forecast by the German Weather Service. If you notice the north-east wind is blowing throughout Japan, don't ever let children get wet in the rain. And women who want to have children in the future. Don't let them go outside on such days. We, middle-aged men are okay, including me.

It's because cesium-137 is dangerous. Its half life is 30 years. It's dangerous because it tends to accumulate in muscles. Men have relatively more muscle. Even if cesium-137 gets absorbed inside their bodies, it spreads thinly throughout their muscles. On the other hand, women don't have much muscle, and the absorbed cesium tends to concentrate in the organs like mammary gland and uterus. It may increase the incidence of breast cancer. But this is something you can prevent if you have the knowledge. If you have to go outside on such days, please wet the gauze inside the mask first and put on the mask before you go out.

Also, you have to be careful with iodine, too, while it is still released. Iodine accumulates in seaweed and it is easily absorbed from your hair. So, one way to prevent iodine absorption is to put on a hat so that your hair won't get wet from the rain.

You haven't heard about such things, have you? Nobody tells you that. The government doesn't tell, either. But I wanted to let you know. That's why I came here today.

I don't want to talk too long, but one last thing.

I hear some wise old men protected a very beautiful fountain located within the radius of 30km from Chernobyl plant. How they protected it is mysterious. I studied nuclear energy intensively and I studied physics to some extent. But still I believe in an invisible power. Those wise old men didn't evacuate after the accident. How did they protect the fountain? By prayer. I'm not sure how many of you believe in the power of prayer. But if you can believe in it, even if just a little, then please pray in the morning that the Fukushima-1 nuke plant may rest in peace. And remember, we've benefited from radioactivity because it produces electricity. So, please pray that the radiation will be neutralized and vanished by our sense of gratitude and our love. I hope we'll pull together and pass that prayer over to the next generation.

That's all I had to say. Thank you.

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Translation and captioning by tokyobrowntabby.

9/15/2011 Areva suspends some uranium production after Japan quake

Source: AFP
Date: 9/15/2011

PARIS — French nuclear giant Areva is suspending uranium production at two plants because of low demand from Japanese power stations in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
...
Read full article here

9/6/2011 Microbes Generate Electricity While Cleaning Up Nuclear Waste

Source: Science Daily
Date: 9/6/2011

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2011) — Researchers at Michigan State University have unraveled the mystery of how microbes generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste and other toxic metals.
...
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(Video) Dial M. for "Meltdown"

Source: Fairewinds Associates
Date: 8/12/2011
by: Brian Rich


After seeing the destruction in Japan from the Earthquake and Tsunami. Then Fukushima Nuclear Facility melted down before my very eyes on television. I knew something was not right. My research and investigations were met with dead ends, false readings/answers, and lies. I decided to create this video to make sure the history of Commercial Nuclear power was documented and presented to a younger generation. I found most of the public was turned off by the complex nature of Nuclear Physics, even if what they didn't know was going to kill them and their loved ones.

Meeting Arnold Gundersen and his wife Maggie only opened my eyes to the dangers our country and civilization face because of decisions made decades ago and the lies created to further the nuclear agenda. Their constant truthful testimony against the nuclear industry and their shortcuts and obfuscating, should be a real awakening to the public at large. Creative inspiration came from the GOOD Nuclear Weapons video. Enjoy!

8/4/2011 Fracking Radiation Targeted By DOE, GE

Source: Forbes
Date: Aug. 3 2011 - 10:05 am
by: Jeff McMahon

Shale gas well. Image via Wikipedia

The Department of Energy and General Electric will spend $2 million over the next two years to remove naturally occurring radioactive materials from the fracking fluids produced by America’s booming shale-gas industry. The New York State Department of Health has identified Radium-226 as a radionuclide of particular concern in the Marcellus Shale formation deep beneath the Appalachian Mountains. ... Read full article here

8/3/2011 Swedish man arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen; says it was only a hobby

Source: Associated Press via The Washington Post
Date: Wednesday, August 3, 10:34 AM

STOCKHOLM — A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby.

Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material.
...
Read full article here

Editor's Note: See also "Swede held for building nuclear reactor in his kitchen" from a local English language Swedish publication.

7/27/2011 Emergency alert issued at Kentucky Uranium enrichment facility

Date: 7/27/2011

A failed gasket caused a toxic gas leak at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Paducah, Kentucky. The non-radiological chlorine trifluoride (ClF3) gas was released on Wednesday 7/27/2011 04:15 AM CDT when an "Alert" level (second lowest severity on a four tier scale) emergency event was issued by USEC (United States Enrichment Corporation) who runs the Uranium enrichment plant near Paducah, Kentucky.[1] The emergency status lasted several hours before being terminated by the USEC. For the full text of the NRC event notification report read here.


View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

Sources:
[1] Industrial gas leak prompts onsite alert at PGDP
[2] NRC Event notification Report #47099, Nuclear Regulatory Commission

7/2/2011 Radioactive Waste Dumped in Open Pits Outside Los Alamos National Lab

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 7/1/2011

To understand why a raging wildfire near the Los Alamos National Laboratory is a big deal, you must understand how wastes were disposed.
AP writes today:

Los Alamos Canyon runs past runs past the old Manhattan Project site in town and a 1940s era dump site where workers are near the end of a clean-up project of low-level radioactive waste. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first atomic bomb, and workers from the era dumped hazardous and radioactive waste in trenches along six acres atop the mesa where the town sits.
“The threat is pretty limited,” said Kevin Smith, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration site manager for Los Alamos, which over sees the lab. “Most of the materials have been dug up.”

But a report produced by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability found:

Approximately 18 million cubic feet of radioactive and chemical solid wastes onsite were disposed of since 1943. “All of the radioactive waste and most of the chemical waste have been buried on the mesas of Pajarito Plateau where LANL is located. Radioactive liquid wastes were discharged to the canyons, initially with little treatment.”

For many years, one method of disposal was “kick-and-roll”. The back of a truck was brought to the edge of a hole and barrels of waste were kicked. Wherever the barrels rolled tow as their final resting place.

No protection was put in place to ensure contaminants did not spread from the barrel. It is not clear that today’s practices are more protective.

An estimated 899,000 curies of low-level transuranic [i.e. radioactive elements heavier than uranium, such as plutonium] wastes were buried at Los Alamos. It is difficult to estimate exactly the quantity of radionuclides buried onsite due to the inaccurate record keeping and alterations in the definitions of low-elevel waste in the intervening years. Disposal continues today in unlined pits and shafts, a practice declared illegal by the New Mexico Attorney General’s office in 2011...

Tons of plutonium were processed at LANL in the early years of development and again in the 1980s. After the Savannah River Site, LANL contains the second largest volume of plutonium-238 in the US nuclear weapons complex: this type of plutonium has a 90-year half-life, a very high activity and is extremely hazardous...

No wonder people have warned that the trees and soil in the areas surrounding the Los Alamos Laboratory may themselves now be radioactive. See this and this.

5/23/2011 | World nuclear energy production and uranium demand to 2020

Source: Next Big Future
Date: 5/23/2011

 1. Bloomberg: the biggest drop in prices of uranium in two years may be ending as China and India plan atomic power developments that will more than double global production even after Japan’s nuclear disaster.
...
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